Reinforcement Learning-Based Optimization for Sustainable and Lean Production within the Context of Industry 4.0

Abstract

The manufacturing industry often faces challenges related to customer satisfaction, system degradation, product sustainability, inventory, and operation management. If not addressed, these challenges can be substantially harmful and costly for the sustainability of manufacturing plants. Paradigms, e.g., Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing, provide effective and innovative solutions, aiming at managing manufacturing operations, and controlling the quality of completed goods offered to the customers. Aiming at that end, this paper endeavors to mitigate the described challenges in a multi-stage degrading manufacturing/remanufacturing system through the implementation of an intelligent machine learning-based decision-making mechanism. To carry out decision-making, reinforcement learning is coupled with lean green manufacturing. The scope of this implementation is the creation of a smart lean and sustainable production environment that has a minimal environmental impact. Considering the latter, this effort is made to reduce material consumption and extend the lifecycle of manufactured products using pull production, predictive maintenance, and circular economy strategies. To validate this, a well-defined experimental analysis meticulously investigates the behavior and performance of the proposed mechanism. Results obtained by this analysis support the presented reinforcement learning/ad hoc control mechanism’s capability and competence achieving both high system sustainability and enhanced material reuse.